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Welcome to Free Water Sangha

A Zen master laughed on his death-bed and exclaimed: “All this time I’ve been selling water by the river!”

This famous Zen saying says it all about the quandary of the spiritual dilemma. What we seek is what is seeking, our own self. And since what is seeking is already here, in other words, you are already here, then what we are seeking is already here as well! But, alas, many of us don’t realize this, don’t know this. And therefore we seek, we search. The Zen Master says, “but, but… the River, your own self, is already always here!” Not knowing it, not realizing it, not believing it, the Master is forced to give the seeker spiritual practices (sell water by the raging River). Spiritual practices are really designed to do one thing: exhaust the seeker! Looking, and looking and looking, always forever “OVER-looking,” the seeker, in a moment of sheer grace, falls to exhaustion, and realizes what has always already been right here, right now: ever-present witnessing awareness, witnessing this writing, witnessing your computer, right now, right here. Just that, just this…just this awareness, is your own self. Free Water really.

Free Water Sangha is a spiritual community founded in 1999 by Mokshananda shortly after Mokshananda’s beloved teacher, Adyashanti, a student of Zen Buddhism, released him to teach. Adyashanti studied under his teacher, Arvis Joen Justi, for 14 years before she released him to teach, and Arvis was a student of Taizan Maezumi Roshi of the Los Angeles Zen Center before he released her to teach.

Join Mokshananda for Satsang in Santa Cruz, CA, and in a variety of locations in the United States and Canada.

Free Water Sangha is a non-profit religious organization exempt from Federal taxes under Section 501(c)(3). Charitable contributions are tax-deductible.